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Drones
Imagine living in fear, living in the fear that at any moment, at any time an unmanned drone strike could take your life or a family members life.Drone strikes make it so that there are less soldiers in the line of fire.but on the other hand they are completely at random at least that what the people who don't support drones want you to think. But thats not the case. The truth is that the pilot will monitor the target for a few months before he pulled the trigger. And there is one thing that can not be ignored. Drones cause less civilian casualties than a firefight on the ground.
Drones are beginning to become more and more active in today's armies. Drones were originally put in to service as a mean of reconnaissance. That drone was called a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). The UAV would be launched by hand and then you would control them by a remote. But now there are whole places with people who are flying drones. the first successful drone strike was in 2002 november 4th. That drone strike killed the taliban leader that was in charge of the bombing of the USS COLE it also killed an American citizen that was suspected of running a Al- Qaeda group in buffalo NY. So the first strike was very successful. And the ones know are also successful. The drones now have laser guided missiles ( Which are one of the most accurate missiles) they are devastating and very accurate. And all the drones are being controlled from an air conditioned place somewhere in the U.S.
This year the Pentagon announced that they would be making a medial for the pilots of drones and the cyber warriors. the announcement caused such an uproar from the veterans that the Pentagon had to shut down the program. They still offer the award but they have less value than the purple heart (the purple heart is an award that is awarded to any person in the service that is injured in the line of duty) so they don't really have any meaning
The benefits of a drone is: there is not the aspect of human error, it can have constant surveillance, The pilot doesn't get cramps and rashes from sitting in a ejection seat twenty four hours a day and it doesn't put soldiers in harms way. The soldiers can be sitting safe in the U.S.
The pilots of drones have mixed feelings about it when, one pilot was asked about how he felt he said he felt bad and also sort of unstoppable. He felt bad that he was out of harms way while the marines were in harms way. “ But this had been a weird feeling,” he said “ you feel bad you don’t feel worthy. I’m sitting there safe and sound, and those guys down there are in the thick of it, and i can have more impact than they can, I almost feel like I should not be safe”.
A bad thing about drones is the way the army is getting the pilots. By saying that its like a video game.The pilots could be so set on it being like a videogame that they forget that it has any impact on the real life. It's scary that there could be people who don't really think the targets as actual people but as just targets.
You know the old saying that goes “Be close to your friends, but be closer to your enemies”. well with drones we can be closer to our enemies then we ever were. We can be apart of there life without them even noticing. Drones are good because the main base where the pilot flies it is in the U.S. so theres less of a chance of interference then say if it was a person monitoring the target.
Drones have many good attributes.
Lightweight craft so less fuel.
The pilots don't get tired so there can be longer missions.
The pilots are not in harms way.
The drone can increase efficiency and use less fuel doing so. So yes the drones are good at anything from keeping our troops on the ground safe, to monitoring possible insurgents. Soldiers can now see what's lies over the next hill with the help of a UAV, and if they are ever pinned down the drone can help by simply just blowing up the target. In conclusion drones will give us a huge advantage on the battlefield. We will be able to know more about the target/ enemy. It will help strategize and make the right decisions on the field of battle. So drones might not be seen as the best idea but it would really help the troops fighting for our country.
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